Last night the great and the good, the big and the small, the international and the local of the information industry gathered together at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London for the International Information Industry Awards.

Hosted by venerable former BBC journalist John Sergeant the awards were a rollercoaster ride of emotions and all sides of the industry either went home pleased and punch, surprised or determined to come back and sweep up all the awards.

Sergeant was the star of the show with witty stories of the BBC and his life in broadcasting and light entertainment. He revealed a passion for information that a journalist of his stature has developed and that he has account with a certain LexisNexis. No doubt the other vendors present at the awards will all be offering him favourable rates to switch accounts.

Amongst the winners were Rachael Kolsky, IWR info pro of the year, SiteKit, Eugene Garfield picked up a life time achievement award and promised to carry on for many more years to come. MPS Technologies and Trexy also picked up a gong. Full details will appear in the January issue of IWR.